GAANN Handbook - Department of Biology

U.S. Department of EducationOffice of Postsecondary EducationGraduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)Project Director Administrative Handbook

Table of ContentsAbout the Program ..................................................................................................................................... 3Project Director’s Roles and Responsibilities........................................................................................... 3Awards: Conditions and Restrictions of Payment ................................................................................... 4Amount of Award ..................................................................................................................................... 4Duration .................................................................................................................................................... 4Stipend Award .......................................................................................................................................... 4Institutional Payment ................................................................................................................................ 4Institutional Matching Contribution.......................................................................................................... 4Unallowable Costs .................................................................................................................................... 5Grant Renewals ......................................................................................................................................... 5Distribution of Funds ................................................................................................................................ 5Selecting GAANN Fellows ....................................................................................................................... 5Financial Need ............................................................................................................................................. 5Calculating Financial Need ....................................................................................................................... 6Important Policy Guidance ....................................................................................................................... 7Are GAANN Stipends Taxable? ............................................................................................................... 8Administrative Notices ............................................................................................................................... 8PR Award Number .................................................................................................................................... 8Time Extensions........................................................................................................................................ 8Balance Carryovers ................................................................................................................................... 8Evaluation and Reporting: Conditions and Restrictions ........................................................................ 8Records and Reports ................................................................................................................................. 8Reporting Requirements ....................................................................................................................... 9Performance Measures .............................................................................................................................. 9Fellowship Conditions ............................................................................................................................ 10Fellowship Commitments ................................................................................................................... 10Supervision of Fellows ........................................................................................................................... 102

Awards: Conditions and Restrictions of PaymentAmount of AwardThe amount of a grant to an academic department may not be less than $100,000 and may not be morethan $750,000 in a fiscal year. Also, no academic department may receive more than $750,000 as anaggregate total of new and continuing grants in any fiscal year.DurationThe maximum duration of a GAANN award is three annual budget periods during a three year (36 month)project period.Stipend AwardThe institution shall pay the fellow a stipend at a level of support equal to that provided by the NationalScience Foundation graduate fellowships, except that this amount must be adjusted as necessary so as notto exceed the fellow’s demonstrated level of financial need as determined under Part F of Title IV ofHEA. The Secretary announces the amount of the stipend in a notice published in the Federal Register.Institutional PaymentThe Secretary determines the amount of the institutional payment annually in accordance with inflation asdetermined by the United States Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for the previous calendaryear. The Secretary announces the amount of the institutional payment in a notice published by theFederal Register.The institutional payment must be first applied against a fellow’s tuition and fees. After payment of afellow’s tuition and fees, the institutional payment may be applied against educational expenses of thefellow that are not covered by tuition and fees and are related to the academic program in which thefellow is enrolled. Allowable uses of the institutional payment include:Costs for rental/purchase of books;Cost of computer hardware/project specific software and other equipment prorated by the lengthof the student’s fellowship over the reasonable life of the equipment;Membership fees of professional associations;Travel and per diem to professional association meetings and registration fees;International travel, per diem, and registration fees to participate in educational activities;Expenses incurred in research, andCosts of reproducing and binding educational products.Institutional Matching ContributionThe Higher Education Act of 1965, Title VII, Part A, Subpart 2, section 648.7, as amended, states that aninstitution shall provide, from non-Federal funds, an institutional matching contribution equal to at least25 percent of the amount of the grant received under this part, for the uses indicated under section 648.63of the program regulations. Pursuant to these rules, the institutional matching contribution may be usedto:(1) Provide additional fellowships to graduate students who are not already receiving fellowships underthis part and who satisfy the requirements of Sec. 648.40 [program guidelines for fellows];(2) Pay for tuition, fees, and the costs listed in Sec. 648.62(b) [program related expenses of the fellow];4

(3) Pay for the fellow’s heath insurance only if it is a requirement that all students on your campus havehealth insurance;(4) Pay for costs of providing a fellow’s instruction that are not included in the tuition or fees paid to theinstitution in which the fellow is enrolled; and(5) Supplement the stipend received by a fellow under Sec. 648.51 in an amount not to exceed a fellow’sfinancial need.(b) An institution may not use its institutional matching contribution to fund fellowships that werefunded by the institution prior to the award of the grant.Unallowable CostsNeither grant funds nor the institutional matching funds may be used to pay for general operationaloverhead costs of the academic department. General operational overhead costs are defined as means ofnon-instructional expenses incurred by an academic department in the normal administration and conductof its academic program, including the costs of supervision, recruitment, capital outlay, debt service,indirect costs, or any other costs not included in the determination of tuition and non-refundable feecharges.Grant RenewalsThe GAANN Program does not make grant renewals. If your grant is ending, you must compete in thenext competition to secure additional funding once your grant expires. Previous funding does notguarantee success in a new competition.Distribution of FundsThe Secretary awards to the institution of higher education a stipend and an institutional payment for eachindividual awarded a fellowship. If a grantee has not placed fellows within two years of receiving a grant,the grantee may not be eligible for third-year funding. In accordance with section 648.50 (b) of theGAANN program regulations, if an academic department of an institution of higher education is unable touse all of the amounts available to it under this part, the secretary reallots the amounts not used toacademic departments of other institutions of higher education for use in the academic year following thedate of the reallotment.Selecting GAANN FellowsIn selecting individuals to receive fellowships, an academic department shall consider only individualswho:(1) Are currently enrolled as graduate students, have been accepted at the grantee institution, or areenrolled or accepted as graduate students at an eligible non-degree granting institution;(2) Are of superior ability;(3) Have an excellent academic record;(4) Demonstrate financial need;(5) Are planning to pursue the highest possible degree available in their course of study;(6) Are planning a career in teaching or research;(7) Are not ineligible to receive assistance under 34 CFR 75.60, and(8) Are U.S. Citizens, Permanent Residents of the United States, or can provide evidence from theImmigration and Naturalization Service that they are in the United States for other than atemporary purpose with the intention of becoming permanent residents.Financial NeedTitle IV Part F of the HEA of 1965, as amended, provides that a GAANN fellow must demonstratefinancial need to receive a fellowship and must file a FAFSA to determine the amount of his or her award.The financial aid office of the institution issuing the stipend will use the FAFSA as the primary criteria5

for determining need. Submission of the FAFSA every year is important because without thatinformation, a fellow’s financial need cannot be determined, and the student becomes ineligible for thefellowship.If a Project Director or a fellow wishes to know a fellow’s stipend amount, that person shouldcontact the institution’s Financial Aid Office. The Financial Aid Office uses the information on theFAFSA to determine a fellow’s level of financial need according to Part A of Title VI of the HEA. Thefellow’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC) MUST be included in the determination of the fellow’slevel of financial need. A fellow’s stipend must not exceed $30,000 or the fellow’s level of financialneed, whichever is less. Financial need data is not only useful when determining if a perspective fellow iseligible for GAANN, but also useful when completing and submitting performance report data so that wehave the capacity to determine compliance with Title VI of the HEA.Regulations pertaining to stipend disbursement are discussed under section 648.51 of the GAANNprogram regulations. The grantee institution determines the manner in which stipends are disbursed tofellows. Fellows who wish to discuss stipend disbursement (such as when and by what method theirstipends are made available to them) should contact their Project Directors and/or the institutional officeadministering the funds.Calculating Financial NeedThe HEA establishes what components can be used to determine a student’s cost of attendance (COA). Astudent’s COA generally consists of the following: Tuition and fees; Books and supplies; Transportation, and Room and board.Miscellaneous personal expenses such as: Dependent care expenses; Study abroad costs; Disability expenses; Loan fees (if any); Reasonable documented purchase or rental of a computer; The one-time cost of obtaining professional licensure or certification, and Health insurance expenses which can be included in the COA only if it is a requirement forevery student on your campus to have health insurance.Note: The amount of tuition and fees are generally excluded from the student’s COA because thefellowship includes an institutional payment that is accepted by the institution in lieu of tuition and feesnormally charged to the student.Exceptions to excluding tuition and fees in COA: State auditing requirements. For schools in states with auditing requirements that mandate thetuition and fees remain in COA, you may include tuition and fees in the COA, but you must alsoinclude the amount of the institutional payment in the financial aid package, and that will reducethe student’s need (and thus reduce the stipend). Tuition exceeds the institutional payment. Partial tuition is then used to determine the cost ofattendance. That is, the difference between the amount of tuition and fees and the institutionalpayment is included in COA.6

The EFC from the FAFSA is subtracted from the student’s COA as determined by incorporating theabove criteria to arrive at the student’s financial need. This is the primary way of determining a fellow’sfinancial need, but for some schools there may be alternatives depending upon specific exceptionalcriteria.The demonstrated financial need (COA – EFC) under this method almost always will be the stipendamount, depending upon whether the fellow has any other forms of financial aid such as otherscholarships or grants. The stipend cannot exceed financial need and other forms of scholarships, grants,need-based employment, or need-based loans must be counted against need. This is why fellows shouldminimize any loans or employment awards in order to maximize grant or stipend assistance.In the event a fellow has accepted need-based employment or loans to help pay for attendance at theinstitution, that fellow should be counseled to minimize the use of subsidized loans since these are fundsthat must be repaid with interest, whereas the GAANN stipend is gift assistance. There are circumstancesin which a student may accept unsubsidized loans without impacting his or her stipend. Contact yourfinancial aid administrator for additional guidance and advice.Keep in mind that the HEA allows for a financial aid administrator to exercise professional judgment toinclude education-related costs in the cost of attendance (e.g., special materials that must be purchased foran academic program) and adjust FAFSA data elements to reflect changes affecting the student’s income,assets, household size, etc. For example, if a student reports income on the FAFSA but he/she is nolonger working in order to go to school, the financial aid administrator may be able to use the student’sestimated income for the school year with appropriate documentation. It is important to note that not allfinancial aid administrators feel comfortable using professional judgment. This is one reason why it isimperative to form a working relationship with the Financial Aid office at your institution so that theybecome familiar with the GAANN fellowship and its difference from other sources of funding.Generally, a 12-month schedule should be applied when determining financial need since all GAANNfellows must be enrolled on a full-time basis. If the student is not taking classes during the summermonths, he or she should be engaged in other activities that are supportive of their academic careers.These activities could include teaching, researching, presenting at conferences, or similar activitiesapproved by the Department. It is the institutions responsibility to provide the necessary documentationto support the summer enrollment status of a GAANN fellow if calculating need analysis on a 12-monthschedule.Important Policy GuidanceThe GAANN Program is a unique fellowship program in that every student selected for the fellowshipmust demonstrate financial need prior to the disbursement of fellowship funds. This need-basedcomponent is what distinguishes GAANN from other similar fellowship programs administered by suchagencies as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. The Office ofManagement and Budget recognizes this uniqueness and uses this as a basis for making budget requestsand measuring the success of our need-based fellowship program.GAANN fellowship awards should only be reserved for those students who have the greatest amount offinancial need. Making partial awards and subsidizing the fellowship with other institutional funding isnot the most efficient use of GAANN federal funds. We encourage institutions to make full use ofGAANN Program resources by selecting only those students with the greatest amount of financial need.Institutions that adopt a “spreading the wealth” policy among students within their academic departmentare not in keeping with the spirit and intent of the program, which is to provide fellowships to studentswith the greatest amount of financial need. Successful GAANN grantees provide fellowships to students7

who have demonstrated a high degree of financial need and are providing each fellow with a consistentlevel of funding not to exceed five years.Are GAANN Stipends Taxable?Fellows with questions about how their fellowship will affect their tax documents should contact the IRSor check their web site at: http://www.irs.gov. GAANN program staff does not have training in orknowledge of tax regulations regarding fellowships and will not be able to assist you.Administrative NoticesPR Award NumberEach application submitted for funding is assigned an eleven digit PR award number (i.e. P200A120045).Project Directors or other key personnel should reference this number when contacting the program officevia email, correspondence, or by phone. This number assists us with quickly accessing your grant awardinformation in our database to address any questions you may have concerning your grant.Time ExtensionsYou must notify us via email should you need a no-cost time extensions to complete grant activities.Notification must be submitted up to 45 days prior to the end of the three-year award so that we mayprocess your request in a timely manner. Under certain conditions, you may request a second extension,but this must be authorized by GAANN program staff. Your time extension request should include thefollowing:8(1) the PR number;(2) the extension dates;(3) the amount you estimate to spend during the extended period, and(4) the reason for the extension.Balance CarryoversBalances will automatically carry over to the next budget period. GAANN APRs require grantees toprovide a plan for using large unexpended balances prior to being awarded continuation funding. Thosegrantees that do not provide a detailed plan could experience a reduction or elimination in funding in thethird and final year of the grant award.Replacing a Project DirectorIf a new project director has been assigned to the grant, please send an email to the program office tonotify GAANN staff of this change. Please include an up-to-date CV for the new project director in youremail and include all contact information such as your address, phone number, fax number, and email.We are not able to process this change unless you submit all of this information.Evaluation and Reporting: Conditions and RestrictionsRecords and ReportsAn institution of higher education that receives a grant shall provide to the Secretary, prior to the receiptof grant funds for disbursement to a fellow, a certification that the fellow is enrolled in, is makingsatisfactory progress in, and is devoting essentially full time to study in the academic field for which thegrant was made.An institution of higher education that receives a grant shall keep records necessary to establish:(1) That each student receiving a fellowship satisfies the eligibility requirements in CFR 648.40;

(2) The time and amount of all disbursements and return of stipend payments;(3) The appropriate use of the institutional payment, and(4) That assurances, policies, and procedures provided in its application have been satisfied.Reporting RequirementsThe GAANN program requires the submission of the Annual Performance Report (APR) and the SF 425Federal Financial Report by April of each year. Failure to submit these reports before the requireddeadline may jeopardize future funding. The Final Performance Report (FPR) and the SF 425 report forexpired projects must be submitted 90 days after the end of the final budget period. Prior to submittingthese reports, you will receive a letter containing the web address with instructions for completing thereports online. The SF 425 form should be submitted via fax or scanned and submitted to the programoffice via email. Submission of these reports is required under the Education Department GeneralAdministrative Regulations (EDGAR) volume 34 CFR 74.51, 75.590, 75.20, and 75.730-732.The APR requests information about whether the student is making satisfactory academic progresscollects financial data about the fellows’ level of financial need to ascertain if financial need has beenconducted, and the amount of carryover funds for each grant award. The SF 425 form provides detailsrelated to the time and amount of all disbursements, the stipend award, the 25% matching requirement,and the institutional payment. Coordinate with the appropriate office at your institution to ensure thataccurate financial data is reported on the SF 425 form. This form can be accessed athttp://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/standard_forms/ff_report.pdf. The information provided in boththe APR and SF 425 form is crucial in processing grant funds for the next budget period.Please be aware that after your grant expires, you will be required to submit a supplement to the finalperformance report two years after the expiration of your GANNN grant. This supplement to the finalperformance report will require you to provide data on the academic and employment status for allfellows that were awarded under this grant.Performance MeasuresThe GAANN program is held to Congressional oversight standards for the purpose of monitoring theefficiency and effectiveness of this program. Under the Government Performance and Results Act(GPRA), three measures and one efficiency measure have been developed for evaluating the overalleffectiveness of the GAANN program:(1) The percentage of GAANN Fellows completing the terminal degree in the designated areasof national need;(2) The percentage of GAANN Fellows from traditionally underrepresented groups enrolled ina terminal degree program in the designated areas of national need; and(3) The median time to completion of Master's and Doctorate degrees for GAANN students.The GAANN efficiency measure is the Federal cost per successful fellow. Successful GAANN fellowscan be defined as those students who have obtained either a Ph.D., a masters degree, or have passedpreliminary examinations.Data collected from the performance reports will be used to measure how successful the program is inmeeting these GPRA requirements. Please keep these measures in mind as you select fellows and pursueyour GAANN projects.9

Fellowship ConditionsTo continue to be eligible for a fellowship, a fellow must:(1) Maintain satisfactory progress in the program for which the fellowship was awarded;(2) Devote essentially full time to study or research in the academic field in which the fellowship wasawarded, and(3) Not engage in gainful employment, excluding part-time employment in teaching, research, orsimilar activities determined by the academic department to be in support of the fellow’s progresstoward a degree.Fellowship CommitmentsAn academic department makes a commitment to a fellow at any point in his or her graduate study for thelength of time necessary for the fellow to complete the course of graduate study, but in no case longerthan five years. If a Project Director is having difficulty in recruiting students for GAANN, we encourageyou to consider recruiting those students that are currently enrolled in your academic program. You’renot required to only recruit new students for GAANN.Supervision of FellowsThe institution must ensure that all GAANN fellows are making satisfactory academic progress during thefellow’s study. In addition, Section 648.20 of the GAANN program regulations states that the academicdepartment must provide at least one academic year of supervised training in instruction at the graduate orundergraduate level to students receiving fellowships under this program.Note: The supervisory teaching requirement is not equivalent to offering the fellow a position as ateaching assistant. The supervisory teaching component must provide the fellow with adequateinstruction on effective teaching techniques, provide extensive supervision of each fellows teachingperformance, and provide adequate and appropriate evaluation of the fellow’s teaching performance to beassessed on the APR.10